A Different Kind of President's Day

Monday morning is a early tennis day for me. I get up at 5:30, suck down some juice and supplements and a couple of medical tablets (I can't possibly call them meds as I not that old) and a banana, get dressed and leave my 6 in order to get to the tennis facility by 6:30. Monday it was snowing lightly as I left. Since it was President's Day, I knew Wilmot Mt. would probably have crowd so I took my ski gear and uniform with me.

I don't like to drive when it is snowing so I made a decision not to drive up to Wilmot if it was still snowing when I got out of tennis at 8. When tennis was over, I looked outside and it had stopped snowing and actually showed signs of clearing skies. So I decided to drive up.

The drive on the interstate was uneventful and I got off to take the back county roads along the Illinois/Wisconsin boarder avoiding driving through a couple of small towns using a state highway. As soon as I got on the first county road heading east-west, I found the road to be less than good, but clear where the tire tracks of previous cars had been. I drove on a U.S highway north next, then turned to drive west again on a county road. Sunday the temperature had warmed enough to melt some of the ice and snow, but it had turned cold that night leaving patches of ice.

I was driving behind a slow moving truck. I eased over into the passing lane where there was a long straight away for safe passing. Suddenly my car was spinning out of control (well behind the truck) and headed for the ditch on my right. I knew I was going to crash into the ditch. The ditch was deep enough for the nose on the car to just catch the bank of the opposite side of the ditch, causing the car to flip over unto its top and slide about 20 yards from the road.

I was upside down in the car. The car was still running. I turned off the ignition. The drivers side window was gone. I unfastened my seat belt and crawled out with some difficulty just as help arrived. I was perfectly all right and had only a small scratch near my right ear.

The EMT's were there promptly and checked me out and I signed a release. The sheriff's cop sent for a tow truck and I got in the truck when it arrived and we drove to the tow lot in Kenosha, WI. with my car behind. It was plain to see that the car was "totaled".

I called Judith and she came and got me. I gathered all my personnel stuff out of the car and as soon as we got home, I called the our insurance company, Hartford insurance.

After discussing the events, I realize that I had not taken my license plates off. So I drove Judith's car back up the next morning to secure them, which I did. On the way back, I stopped at this huge car dealership just off the interstate to see about getting a new car. They were a CarMax outfit. After looking at some new cars, Chevrolet mostly, the salesman accessed his computer to see about used cars.

My car was a 2002 Camero, the last year they made them, although now they are going to start making them again starting this year. We found a 2002 Camero on the computer at CarMax.com in Louisville KY. with only 17K miles on it. It is almost exactly the same as my car. On the way home, I decided that I would pay the transfer fee of $149 to have it shipped up to Kenosha so I can check it out. The computer had all kinds of photos of it and everything looks OK.

I will buy this car if it is as good as it looks. Hartford Insurance has been a wonderful through all this so far and with my settlement check, I should be able to get my new used Camero at a cost of only $5K. This car will have 30,000 fewer miles on it so its not too bad a trade off.

This experience was frightening, although not at the time it occurred. Later, while alone, the tape of the accident kept playing over and over in my head and I realized that in just a 2 or 3 seconds my life could have been over or seriously altered my injuries.

So I am thankful to still be here and I want friends and family to know how much I love them. And for sure I am going to make better driving decisions in the future.